The media is not unfair to Stephen Ross. The fans are not unfair to Stephen Ross. Ross has done a pitiful job thus far. It's not the reality that matters so much as the perception. The common perception is of a franchise that is in disarray. Perception matters because perception determines whether people wish to work for you. Perception
effects whether or not people wish to purchase your product. Perception eventually alters your reality. Ross has handled any number of things ineptly. Why the desire to apologize for the man?
It started with his inane desire to turn Dolphins Stadium into Studio 54 and sell pieces of the team to low-watt celebrities in order to drive attendance in some way. Ridiculous. Then his very public and futile courting of Harbaugh was an embarrassment he may never live down. Then he insults the fans by keeping a man, Sparano, he obviously wanted gone and had no faith in. Then he asks the fans to pony up their hard earned money to buy a product Ross knew was crap. Then of course his public courting of Fisher that results in Fisher not taking the job. I do not blame Ross for refusing to give Fisher personnel approval. No coach should have such authority and historically, with the exception of Jimmy Johnson and Belicheck, no such combo GM/HC has been successful, but I find it hard to believe that Fisher's desire for control wasn't patently obvious to Ross even before he started his courtship.
Fisher's demise in Nashville was linked to his battles with Bud Adams over Vince Young, who he never wished to draft. That was one of Fisher's bugaboos, how could Ross not have known that even before he started to negotiate and risked failure? If you go back to the Shula days, the Dolphins began to come apart when Shula was given de facto control over personnel. In the glory days he didn't have that authority. Marino kept the organization respectable long after Shula's mismanagement began to hurt the franchise. So yes, Ross is correct to insist on a GM making those calls, however, retaining Ireland in that role was dubious, and having Carl Peterson as a consigliere is arguably worse. Giving Parcells the opportunity to do further damage to the organization under the rationale that Ross was giving the man "a chance" to prove himself was absurd, you make an evaluation then apply your judgment. Parcells was stealing money for the Fins and should have been sent packing along with every Parcells protege. The Dez Bryant incident was another blackeye for the organization and whether Ross was responsible for it or not is irrelevant, it still stains the organization that he owns and anyond who wishes to apologize for Ireland on the grounds that he was asking about character should recall that 31-other organizations in the NFL were able to inquire about Bryant's character without calling the man's mother a whore!
Let's not pretend there isn't ample reason to vilify Ross. Blame the media is the first cunard of the corrupt, the inept or the stupid. What's the media supposed to report? A few owners are quoted in an article as liking Ross and admiring his business savvy and suddenly his apologists use it as a vouchsafe of some kind. When have NFL owners or execs ever criticized one of their own? Ever? I've seen the Bidwells and Mike Brown praised in the media by other owners. They don't bite their own. I fail to see how such votes of confidence indicate anything but agnostic bluster. Jerry Jones loved Al Davis for crying out loud! We should somehow care that Robert Kraft respects Stephen Ross? Kind of like Belichick respected Wannstadt?Have you ever seen a commentator like Joe Theismann throw a coach under the bus, no matter how incompetent? I've never heard it myself. In fact, Theismann became a caricature for never criticizing coaches no matter how inept they were, for him to utter even tepid criticism of the Fins is damning in my opinion. Franchises reflect their ownerships. See the Browns, Bengals, Cards, Lions, Jags, Raiders, etc.
